Tweet
Graffiti House displays 1861 flag
September 14, 2009 12:36 am
BY CLINT SCHEMMER
"Unique" is a much overused word, cheapened by publicists and Madison Avenue hucksters. But it could hardly be more appropriate than when applied to the rare artifact now displayed at Culpeper County's Graffiti House.
"This is just glorious," visitor Floyd Houston said of the banner as it was unveiled Saturday inside the historic home at Brandy Station. "It is in glorious shape."
Houston, a Marine from Burke, stood with two dozen others and admired the one-of-a-kind U.S. flag, hand-sewn at the conflict's start by a 75-year-old widow whose kinfolk went off to war--and wound up at Brandy Station.
The banner has come to Culpeper through a partnership between Brandy Station Foundation, a nonprofit group preserving acreage where the Civil War's largest cavalry battle was fought, and the Neversink Valley Area Museum in Cuddebackville, N.Y. It was discovered in spring 2005 by Juanita Leisch Jensen, a Neversink board member.
Jensen "was poking around in the hot attic of the museum, up in the eaves, and saw a small box," recounted Bob Luddy, former president of the Brandy Station Foundation. "Written on top of it was 'American flag.' She opened it up and took it out, and realized this was far more than just an American flag."
The only clue to the flag's history was in a handwritten note sewn into one of its white stripes:
"This flag was made by Liana Austin Dolson in 1861 when she was over seventy years of age. She was a daughter of Doctor Eusebus Austin who was in the Revolutionary War."
Within a year of her making it, three of Dolson's family members would enlist in the Union Army.
Genealogical research continues, Luddy said, but it appears that at least three Dolsons served in the 124th New York Volunteer Infantry, known as the Orange Blossom Regiment. Theophilus Dolson, 18, probably Liana's grandson, was in Company D of the 124th.
The Orange Blossoms were on the field for the Battle of Brandy Station on June 9, 1863, and camped there with the Army of the Potomac from November 1863 through May 1864. It's thought that Liana Dolson's creation was a "homefront" flag, hung in a window or on a wall of her Wallkill, N.Y., house as a reminder of the young men from Orange County, N.Y., serving in the Union Army, Luddy said.
A flag expert examined it and found no evidence of soot or smoke, indicating it probably wasn't hung in a regimental camp or taken into battle, Luddy said. Sometimes, homefront flags were carried to the front by individual soldiers.
The 124th took part in many of the war's key battles, suffering heavy casualties.
Theophilus Dolson, who rose from corporal to first sergeant, participated in all of the regiment's major engagements: Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, Gettysburg, Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House.
In another link to the Fredericksburg area, he was involved in Confederate Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry raid at Hartwood Church in Stafford in February 1863, precipitating the Battle of Kelly's Ford in Culpeper on March 17, 1863, in which famed Confederate artillerist John Pelham was killed.
The Dolson flag is highly unusual for reasons other than its mere survival, immaculate condition and ties to Culpeper.
Made of cotton, it has a double-sided canton, or blue field. Seen from the front, 21 stars are arranged as an exploding galaxy. Viewed from the reverse, one sees 13 stars arranged in a St. Andrew's cross.
One theory is that Dolson designed the flag to acknowledge the secession of states loyal to the Confederacy as opposed to those states remaining loyal to the Union, Luddy said.
Another idea is that the stars' arrangement represents the 13 original states and the Union's later growth into the 21 states that formed the nation in 1861.
A Brandy Station Foundation board member chanced upon the flag this June while at the Gettysburg Civil War Show, and realized its significance to Brandy Station and Culpeper County history. Talks with its stewards, the Neversink Valley Area Museum, led to its coming here for a temporary exhibition.
Next month, on the weekend of Oct. 17-18, re-enactors from the 124th New York Infantry will set up camp at the Graffiti House--so named for the amazing graffiti left inside it by soldiers during the war. The house will be open from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. both days.
The Dolson Flag will be on display at the Graffiti House until mid-November.
Clint Schemmer: 540/368-5029
Email: cschemmer@freelancestar.com
----------------------------------------------------------
WHAT: Special, temporary exhibition of the Dolson flag, sewn by a widow in 1861
WHERE: Graffiti House, 19484 Old Brandy Road, Brandy Station, Culpeper County DETAILS: 399-1702; brandystationfoundation.com, neversinkmuseum.org
---------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2009 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.
Online at: http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2...9142009/493439
Sadly, the article suffers from poor resolution photographs,
September 14, 2009 12:36 am
BY CLINT SCHEMMER
"Unique" is a much overused word, cheapened by publicists and Madison Avenue hucksters. But it could hardly be more appropriate than when applied to the rare artifact now displayed at Culpeper County's Graffiti House.
"This is just glorious," visitor Floyd Houston said of the banner as it was unveiled Saturday inside the historic home at Brandy Station. "It is in glorious shape."
Houston, a Marine from Burke, stood with two dozen others and admired the one-of-a-kind U.S. flag, hand-sewn at the conflict's start by a 75-year-old widow whose kinfolk went off to war--and wound up at Brandy Station.
The banner has come to Culpeper through a partnership between Brandy Station Foundation, a nonprofit group preserving acreage where the Civil War's largest cavalry battle was fought, and the Neversink Valley Area Museum in Cuddebackville, N.Y. It was discovered in spring 2005 by Juanita Leisch Jensen, a Neversink board member.
Jensen "was poking around in the hot attic of the museum, up in the eaves, and saw a small box," recounted Bob Luddy, former president of the Brandy Station Foundation. "Written on top of it was 'American flag.' She opened it up and took it out, and realized this was far more than just an American flag."
The only clue to the flag's history was in a handwritten note sewn into one of its white stripes:
"This flag was made by Liana Austin Dolson in 1861 when she was over seventy years of age. She was a daughter of Doctor Eusebus Austin who was in the Revolutionary War."
Within a year of her making it, three of Dolson's family members would enlist in the Union Army.
Genealogical research continues, Luddy said, but it appears that at least three Dolsons served in the 124th New York Volunteer Infantry, known as the Orange Blossom Regiment. Theophilus Dolson, 18, probably Liana's grandson, was in Company D of the 124th.
The Orange Blossoms were on the field for the Battle of Brandy Station on June 9, 1863, and camped there with the Army of the Potomac from November 1863 through May 1864. It's thought that Liana Dolson's creation was a "homefront" flag, hung in a window or on a wall of her Wallkill, N.Y., house as a reminder of the young men from Orange County, N.Y., serving in the Union Army, Luddy said.
A flag expert examined it and found no evidence of soot or smoke, indicating it probably wasn't hung in a regimental camp or taken into battle, Luddy said. Sometimes, homefront flags were carried to the front by individual soldiers.
The 124th took part in many of the war's key battles, suffering heavy casualties.
Theophilus Dolson, who rose from corporal to first sergeant, participated in all of the regiment's major engagements: Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, Gettysburg, Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House.
In another link to the Fredericksburg area, he was involved in Confederate Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry raid at Hartwood Church in Stafford in February 1863, precipitating the Battle of Kelly's Ford in Culpeper on March 17, 1863, in which famed Confederate artillerist John Pelham was killed.
The Dolson flag is highly unusual for reasons other than its mere survival, immaculate condition and ties to Culpeper.
Made of cotton, it has a double-sided canton, or blue field. Seen from the front, 21 stars are arranged as an exploding galaxy. Viewed from the reverse, one sees 13 stars arranged in a St. Andrew's cross.
One theory is that Dolson designed the flag to acknowledge the secession of states loyal to the Confederacy as opposed to those states remaining loyal to the Union, Luddy said.
Another idea is that the stars' arrangement represents the 13 original states and the Union's later growth into the 21 states that formed the nation in 1861.
A Brandy Station Foundation board member chanced upon the flag this June while at the Gettysburg Civil War Show, and realized its significance to Brandy Station and Culpeper County history. Talks with its stewards, the Neversink Valley Area Museum, led to its coming here for a temporary exhibition.
Next month, on the weekend of Oct. 17-18, re-enactors from the 124th New York Infantry will set up camp at the Graffiti House--so named for the amazing graffiti left inside it by soldiers during the war. The house will be open from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. both days.
The Dolson Flag will be on display at the Graffiti House until mid-November.
Clint Schemmer: 540/368-5029
Email: cschemmer@freelancestar.com
----------------------------------------------------------
WHAT: Special, temporary exhibition of the Dolson flag, sewn by a widow in 1861
WHERE: Graffiti House, 19484 Old Brandy Road, Brandy Station, Culpeper County DETAILS: 399-1702; brandystationfoundation.com, neversinkmuseum.org
---------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2009 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.
Online at: http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2...9142009/493439
Sadly, the article suffers from poor resolution photographs,
Comment